Bonnie Glass was another very talented and successful dancer in vaudeville Theaters during the 1910s. Started her career as a Musical Comedy soloist, she found she had a knack for dancing. Glass managed the popular 'Cafe Montmarte' club in New York in 1915 and would hire many dancers to dance with her in her shows at the Cafe, sometimes these partnerships would last for months and others for the evening. With the BF Keith's Palace Theater opening up to Vaudeville in 1913, she would soon headline there. Glass would partner many future movie stars such as Clifton Webb (1914) and Valentino (1915.)

     Glass spotted Webb at the already succesful club dance at the 'Jardin de Danse' in New York and seeked him for a dance partner. Webb had a very long track record as a dancer but not in Ballroom and is reported that Glass trained him.

They became romantically involved as well as sharing some very successful dance performances. They had a falling out and Webb opened a dance studio with his mother and continued to perform.

    Rudolpho Valentino was a Taxi dancer (Gigalo) at Maxim's where Glass performed and asked him to partner with her on her tours after she gave him many lessons in dance. They were billed as "Bonnie Glass and Rudolpho" during the 1915-1916 season. They had some success and failures as a dance team, but the cincher for Bonnie was when Valentino was arrested for Black Mail (some say Burglary) which ended the Glass-Valentino partnership in which she testified even though Valentino was found innocent. Bonnie Glass is said to have retired in 1917 probably due to some of her Club and Keith's Vaudeville

tours being reported as a failure, along with Valentino and the huge success of Webb's studio. Valentino went on to dance with Joan Sawyer. She married artist and stage designer Ben Ali Haggan as his second wife.

    During Glass's heyday, she would basically run the whole show at the clubs, doing the choreography, costume design, set design if needed etc. Because of this and her hiring her own partners, she would receive first billing which was unusual at the time with the exceptions of Mae Murray, Joan Sawyer and Glass, all three basically did the same thing. It is interesting to note that these three ladies all worked at the Palace, Maxims etc.

Birth Place

Birth Date

Spouse

Offspring

Dance Types

Dance Partners

Music Titles

Night Clubs

Theaters

Stage

Films

Television

Publications